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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT DF THE INTERIOR
OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS • - WASHINGTON, D.C.
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CONTENTS OF THE ISSUE OP JANUARY 1939
Volume VI Number 5
Page
Editorial John Collier 1
Reorganization News 4
Indians Of The Louisiana Bayous Dr . Ruth M. Underhill ... 5
Soil Conservation At Northern Idaho Reservations 8
Tribal Codes Are Nothing New Earl Wooldridge 9
Indians Live In Contrasting Climates 10
Indian Service Acquires Anderson Sioux
Collection Paul L. Fickinger 12
Troublesome Indians Should Be Confined In Penal
Settlements , Old Report Advocated 14
The Story Of Alaska 1 s Reindeer D . E. Thomas 15
Pawnee Hogans John P . Harrington 20
The Indian Service Makes Its Annual Report
For 1938 . 24
"Manomin", The Wild Rice Of The Lake Country ... Mark L. Burns 26
Indians In The News 30
Cover Page Picture 31
Unique CCC-ID Project Proves Valuable At Carson
Agency In Nevada Edith V . Murphey 32
Departmental Committee On Water Resources Named 33
Elinor Gregg Leaves Indian Service 34
Tools Found In Utah Cave 34
Others Leave Indian Service: Miss Lavinia Mor-
rison; John E. Dawson; Paul C- Thompson 35
Uintah-Ouray Irrigation Survey Completed 35
The Palm Springs Problem - A Step Toward
Solution w. V. Woehlke 36
Some Cheyenne Words ; 37
Trees For The Cheyenne River Reservation In
South Dakota Ernest G. Hawkinson .... 38
Washington Office Visitors 39
Range Rest And Revegetation Stop Blowing Sands 40
Pine Ridge Children In And Out Of The Classroom 41
Range Rehabilitation at Fort Hall, Idaho 42
Bull Hollow CCC-ID Camp 42
From CCC-ID Reports 43
INDIANS AT WORK
A News Sheet for Indians
and the Indian Service
VOLUME VI JANUARY 1939 NUMBER 5
Interest, amid Indian Service, in the Federal Field Training School
at Albuquerque , has outrun information. This has teen because the Albuquerque
project was "feeling its way ll j announcements would have been premature.
The reasons for the Federal Field Training School, and for other per-
sonnel projects, are summarized in the Annual Eeport of the Interior Department
for 1938.
" Finding And Testing Administrators
"Some realization, although surely not an adequate one, of
the rapidly evolving character of the Indian Service, will have been
conveyed by this report. The Service has moved swiftly from pre-
scribed routines to experimental methods and local adaptations. The
Indian Service administrator's task has become one of planning and
leading; it is political in the richest sense of that word, and it
is a business operation of complexity and magnitude; it involves the
manipulation of a considerable number of technical services, always
with a view to their incorporation within local Indian life. Indian
administration calls for men and women with some creative endowment,
much discipline, a capacity for suspended judgment joined with a
capacity for taking action and for accepting the consequences of
one's own initiative. It calls for an exceptional ability in deal-
ing with superiors, with coordinate officers, and with subordinates.
And finally, it calls for unusual endowments of efficient social and
human nature; because an Indian Service which fails to enlist deeply
the rank and file of the Indians falls short in everything else,
and enlistment must be of the heart as well as of the head.
"Is it possible to identify in advance, through methods
appropriate to the competitive Civil Service, those endowments, in-
terests, psychological traits, personality characteristics, which
give promise of a successful administrative career in Indian Serv-
ice? Can past performance supply the evidences of such fitness or
want of fitness in a candidate? How can the probationary period
be so used as to reveal the presence or absence of essential
traits, the having or not having of the power to overcome threat-
ening weaknesses? VThat kind of pre-service or in-service train-
ing is needed, in order to meet this need which ultimately is the
critical need in the Indian Service - the finding and developing
of administrators?
"In the main, the question must be asked not at the top
administrative level, but at a level below the top one. The lead-
ing personnel problem of Indian Service is to find and equip sub-
ordinate or junior administrators, whose careers will be commenced
in the local jurisdictions among the Indians.
" Rockefeller Foundation Gives Grant F or Personnel Exp er i mentat i on
"To try to find answers to the questions above set down,
there has been established the Southwest Field Training School for
Federal Service, administratively conducted under the Commissioner
of Indian Affairs and the superintendent of the United Pueblos
Agency. This activity is supported by a grant made by the Rocke-
feller Foundation through the Institute of Public Affairs, and the
search for the men and women to be admitted to the experimental en-
terprise is a responsibility of the Institute of Public Affairs.
"Essential to the success of the experiment is the place-
ment of the so-called field aides in positions of true responsibil-
ity, because in such situations alone can their vital abilities be
finally tested. Essential, too, is the maintenance of performance
records which shall supply an objective basis for competitive pro-
motion; and the keeping and making of such records must not be con-
fined to the members of the experimental institution, but should be
extended to the regularly employed personnel as rapidly as knowledge
is available and resources permit. A whole-time director of train-
ing, attached to the experiment at Albuquerque, not merely works
with and upon the so-called aides, but carries out job analyses
within the United Pueblo and other jurisdictions, and it is his role
to participate in the wider experimentation with records and with in-
service training applied to the regularly employed personnel. The
'aides 1 are not privileged persons in any sense of the word, but
must meet, in qualifying for positions and in subsequent advancement,
the tests of Civil Service and of the personnel system of the Interi-
or Department and the Indian Office. The 'aides' are given testing
experiences also in other Federal services local to the experimental
area.
"Arising initially out of interest in the experiment above
described, there has been created an Interdepartmental Committee on
Problems of Personnel, made up of representatives of the Civil Serv-
ice Commission and the Departments of Agriculture and Interior. (Com-
missioner Collier is chairman.) This committee, whose functions are
not administrative but advisory, and in the nature of research, deals
with questions of personnel common to the agencies which make it up,
and especially with those questions which lie upon that borderline
where the Civil Service Commission and the executive organizations
have their problems in common."
The field aides are, by preference, individuals between 24 and 30
years old. They are college graduates. They are chosen on the basis of all
obtainable record and of a series of personal interviews. They are paid a min-
imum subsistence wage, and after a brief "orientation" course they are thrown
into one after another of increasingly responsible assignments. The field
aide who survives his year is dependable material for an administrative career
in the Indian Service - indeed, in any field service of the government. Even
then, he must qualify for permanent employment through open competitive examin-
ations.
Do the field aides by their work make unnecessary the work of those
regularly employed? Such a question could be asked only by one who did not
know the immensity of the Indian Service task. Goethe said of his drama "Faust"
that it had "a quality of the immeasurable." Indian Service has that quality.
The single Albuquerque area could absorb not ten but thrice ten field aides,
without relieving of his weight of work or his horizon of opportunity one of
the five hundred regular employees in that single jurisdiction. (Actually,
United Pueblos is but one of the training and testing jurisdictions.)
Do the field aides - does the Training School - do all of the innova-
tions in the personnel field today - imperil the careers of those now in the
Indian Service? Certainly, to newly enrich and strengthen as well as to chal-
lenge and discipline the administrative talent of the Service is the aim of
these ventures. Equally, however, these ventures are aimed at the finding of
ways to identify, to train, and more rapidly to promote, those already in the
Service who have strong endowments. All else in Indian Service depends upon
the intensification of personnel ability. It is a fact, I believe, that a few
of those now in the Service have experienced a feeling of insecurity due to
these new undertakings. This must be endured; for no element of present pro-
gram is more imperative than these. The whole force of the Department is back
of these enterprises.
Rarely have I reviewed a book in "Indians At Work." But now I men-
tion one. It says nothing about Indians. It is Rear Admiral Byrd* s "Alone",
just now published.
I recommend this book to everyone, but especially to those in lonely
posts and in difficult positions in Indian Service.
For meteorological observations, in 1933, three men of the Byrd Ant-
arctic Expedition were scheduled to stay throughout the long, absolute night
of the south polar winter in a hut which was to be buried in a pit dug in the
measureless glacier above the polar continent. Through circumstances beyond
control, only one man, not three, could go, and Rear Admiral Byrd chose him-
self as that one man. When the half-year night was less than two months ad-
vanced, Byrd was laid low by carbon monoxide poisoning, which was constantly
recurring thereafter . Then for nearly three months he fought such a battle as
perhaps no other human annal records, against madness or death, or death fol-
lowing madness. He won the fight, and in the course of it he lived to the
depths of the mortal experience which was his lot on earth- This battle against
poisonous gas, against the black cold of minus 60, minus 70, minus 80 degrees
Fahrenheit, and against desperate organic need to which no help could come,
must hold any reader as no romance of wild adventure could do. Around and amid
the ordeal, the terrible, infinite beauty of aurora and of storm; and never did
the man in his struggle with annihilation fall away from the awareness of this
beauty. And not for one twenty-four-hour period did he neglect his observa-
tions or his instruments. His loyalty and discipline passed into a victory over
death - into a orofounder life. "Alone" is recommended to all.
^e^*__.
Commissioner of Indian Affairs
R EORGANIZATION NgWS
Constitutions :
Yes No
November 19 Walapai Tribe of the Walapai
Reservation in Arizona 62 34
November 30 Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma 93
December 5 Absentee - Shawnee Indian Tribe
Of Oklahoma 121 50
Charter :
Yes No
November 15 The Caddo Indians of Oklahoma 123 55
Amendment To C harter :
Yes No
November 12 Red Cliff Band Of Lake Superior Chippewa
Indians of the Red Cliff Reservation,
Wisconsin 47
INDIANS OF THE LOUISIANA BAYOUS
By Dr. Buth M. Underhill, Associate Supervisor of Indian Education
A Typical Louisiana Bayou
In former days, In-
dians of the great Muskogean
language family covered al-
most all the southeastern
United States. It was mem-
bers of this family, students
think, who built the mounds
of the Mississippi Valley,
relics of one of the high
civilizations of ancient
North America. As the white
Americans moved in, some of
the greatest of the Muskoge-
an peoples made treaties with
them, by which they relin-
quished their lands and
settled on others in Okla-
homa which means, in their
language, Red People. Such
were the Creek, Choctaw,
Chickasaw and Seminole, who
joined with the Cherokee,
of a different language fam-
ily, to form the Five Civi-
lized Tribes. Behind them
they left some scattered
Muskogean relatives, who
were never included in any
treaty. Such were the Houma,
or Bed People, still to be
found in Louisiana.
Once the Houma
lived up the Mississippi
where, said an old French
explorer, "they had a temple embellished with the most pleasing and grotesque
figures that one can see." Since that time, 238 years ago, French, Spanish
and American whites have flooded into the Mississippi Valley and the Houma
have moved and moved again, mixing with other Indian groups and, at times, with
the other inhabitants of the land. Now they have found a home on the swampy
bayous which stretch from the Mississippi down to the Gulf of Mexico. A hun-
dred miles west of New Orleans is the town of Houma where once, they say, their
people settled. Now the town is s i urounded by sugar plantations and, to reach
the Indians, you must go far down the bayous from the Mississip-oi to the Gulf
of Mexico.
First you pass the homes of the Cajuns, or Acadians, exiled from
Nova Scotia in 1755 when England deported the French settlers (thus were the
famous Gabriel end Evangeline of Longfellow's poem separated for sorrowful
years). The Cajuns were long the majority of the white population and they
have left their legacy in the French language which is spoken everywhere and
in the neatness of the little wooden houses, scrubbed and sanded like those of
a French village. Cajuns and Indians have been neighbors for many a year and
the interchange of habits is easy to note. Further along the bayou you may
find a few Negro cabins immaculate as those of the whites and at last the homes
of the Indians stretching perhaps past the end of the road so that they can be
reached only by boat .
These homes are one or two -roomed cabins with a gabled roof, some-
times thatched with palmetto. If you could find a group of men thatching, you
might see them tying a huge frond to the rafters by its own leaves, just as
Muskogean people have done in this country for hundreds of years. Inside, the
house is scrubbed clean as a hospital room and is furnished perhaps with a
French four-poster bed draped with spotless mosquito netting and with hand-
whittled chairs, with cowhide seats.
Better than a cabin, however, the Indians consider, is a shantyboat
with its blunt nose pushed up against the bank, ready to push off again, when-
Cabin With Palmetto Thatch, Dugouts On Bank
ever the hunting and fishing seem better somewhere else. You stop at the door
of one such boat where a smiling young woman invites you to enter in old-fash-
ioned French. She serves coffee in the hospitable Louisiana manner and shows
you, perhaps, a blowgun made in the ancient Indian style. In the back room
sit other women mending nets.
Outside along the bayou more nets are stretched to dry. "We live,"
the Indians explain, "like the seagulls, on what we can get out of the water."
This means fishing in summer, oystering and shrimping in winter. The Indians
have always followed these practices, once for their own food alone, but now
commercially •
Outside on the bayou bank is the dugout canoe, hollowed from cypress
trunk after the old Indian custom and called by the Indian name, pirogue . It
seems shallow as a pan; if you try a ride in it you are amazed that a human
body can balance itself in that shell against even a light puff of wind. But
around the bayou bend comes one of the young men of the family standing casual-
ly on the seat of his pirogue and poling along with a keg of shrimp as his
load. "It is easy," he says. "We even have pirogue races. We get plenty of
practice for one must use the pirogue to fish and to carry our shrimp to mar-
ket and even to cross the bayou to visit a neighbor." He has been shrimping:
he shows you how he stands in the flighty little craft to cast out the shrimp
Shrimp Luggers
net shaped like ahu^e parachute, then pulls the string to close the net and
hauls it in, still without upsetting his pirogue.
The man next door fishes on a larger scale. He has been able to buy
a shrimp lugger, a chunky little boat with a gasoline engine with which he
goes out to salt water, takes in thirty to forty barrels of shrimp and carries
it to the cannery where he can make a ?ood sale. When shrimp are not plenti-
ful he can go for oysters. So pass at least six months of the year. In mid-
winter, like all the other Indians, he drops fishing and goes with all his
family to the marshes where they camp in old Indian fashion. The man sets
traps for mink and muskrat and the women skin the animals. Summer is the only
slack time; even in summer, however, the bayou gives them fish enough to live
on .
It is a healthy life. The children are clear -skinned and bright-
eyed. The bright eyes are not likely to become overstrained from reading for
none of the Indians go to school- Nor have they ever gone: Louisiana law
excludes Negroes from the white schools and the Indians, mixed or not, are con-
sidered as Negro. They object to attending Negro school and, as a consequence,
none of them can read and write. There are signs of change in this condition.
Some very good church schools have been established, entirely for Indians. Two
public schools have followed and the state superintendent of schools gives us
hope that soon every bayou where the Indians live will have its one-room school-
house. The Louisiana welfare authorities are also sympathetically interested
in the Indians. In time we hope for a coordination of the various agencies
who can offer to this independent and upstanding group of people the technical
advice, medical advice and education which is needed to supplement their own
efforts.
SOIL C0N5.2RVATI0N AT NORTHERN IDAHO RESERVATIONS
In cooperation with the Soil Conservation Service, erosion control
and soil conservation farm management plans have been made for several allot-
ments on the Coeur d'Alene Reservation, and have been put into effect with the
consent of the Indian owners of the land and of the lessees who operate the al-
lotments. In that area a very large part of the valuable topsoil which reaches
an average depth of more than four feet, has already been destroyed by erosion
as a result of wrong farming practices. The Palouse country in Idaho and Wash-
ington is one of the finest wheat -growing districts in the world without a com-
plete crop failure in seventy years, but the use of the land for straight wheat-
raising has made its complete destruction within a comparatively few decades a
strong probability. 3y changing the farming methods - by substituting soil-
builaing end grass crops for straight wheat, by eliminating certain steep erod-
ing areas from cultivation entirely - the remaining topsoil is being saved.
These cooperative agreements with the allottees are the first in what is ex-
pected to be a fairly complete coverage of all of the dangerous spots both on
the Coeur d'Alene and the Nez Perce Reservations.
TRIBAL CODES ARE NOTHING NEW
By Earl Wooldridge , Superintendent, Grand Ronde-Siletz Agency, Oregon
In going over old files here, I have discovered, among other interesting
data, that the Grand Ronde Indians had an organization in 1879, 1880 and 1881
which they called "The Grande Ronde Indian Legislature." This organization,
which included about twelve members, met annually, and acted as both governing
body and court. In addition to these responsibilities, the group passed laws
for the guidance of their people. Some of the ordinances are given below, with
their spelling and phraseology unchanged.
November 12, 1877
11th ; When the amount of money
in the Treasury exceeds $50 it shall
be loaned out at the rate of ten per-
cent per anum to Some good man who
Shall give Security, it shall not be
loaned out for a longer period than
Six Months. If any wheat or oats is
on hand in the Treasury it shall be
loaned out to Some good Man every 10
bushel loaned to one man he shall re-
turn 12 bushel after harvest .
18th : If any man talk Saucey
and abuse another person with out
cause and provoke him so that he whip
him the person that commenced the dis-
pute or was the cause of the quarrell
if convicted shall be fined from $2.50
to $5-00 and Cost of Court.
20th : Any doctor who doctors
any Person and think he cant cure the
person he must tell the person he
cant cure him so that he dont rob him
of all his property, he is to receive
$2.50 for his cervices, but if the
Doctor keeps on doctoring him and
dont cure after he is to be fined
$10.00 and Cost of Court if proven.
November 4, 1879
12th: If any woman promise to
marry a man and he shall expend any
money for preparing for marriage and
the woman brake her promise and re-
fuse to marry, the man shall recover
from the woman the amount so expended,
and cost court if he have to bring
law suit.
13th : If a man promise to mar-
ry a woman and afterwards refuse to
marry her he shall pay all expenses
fees and be fined $10- and Cost of
Court.
20th: Any man who belong to
this Agency and rent land out side
of the Agency, and he use the Agency
machines raper and mower and thresh-
er he shall pay tole for the use of
such machines as if same same as
charged out side or what ever is the
custom to charge, if the machines
got plenty to do on the agency they
must first attend to the agency.
29th : The following old people
dont have to work on road viz Old
Rily, old Elkins, Old Taytor, old J .
Brown, old Cass old Amos, old Wach-
ena, old Clamath jim, old Quackerty,
Yamhill jo, all men pay tax and San-
son Wilder.
February 28, 1881
31st: Any Indian who own land
and dont build on it or work on it,
and live on another mans land when
he is notef ied by the person who own
land that he lives on, and dont
leave, he is to be fined if found
guilty in the sum of $10.00 and
cost.
INDIANS
LIVE
I N
The two photographs on this
page are of the hospital at -Black-
feet, Montana. They were taken during
the winter of 1936-37-
After a heavy snowfall, the
only entrance to the building, then
nearing completion, was the tunnel
shown in the photographs. Subsequent
grading work has minimized the likeli-
hood of recurrence of similar drift-
ing.
The top photograph on the
opposite page shows date palms at
Torres-Martinez Reservation, Mission
Agency, California-
The bottom photograph on the
page opposite was taken in Death Val-
ley, California, home of a few scat-
tered groups of Indians: Pomos, Mewuks,
Paiutes, and Shoshones .
10
CONTRASTING CLIMATES
11
INDIAN SERVICE ACQUIRES ANDERSON SIOUX COLLECTION "
By Paul L. Fickinger, Associate Director of Education
With the announcement of the consummation, in November, of the pur-
chase of the world-famous John Anderson Sioux Indian Museum Collection, the
Education Division of the Indian Office has realized a dream of many years'
standing.
Mr- Anderson has "been loath to sell his collection of Sioux artifacts
which he had gathered over a fifty-two year period, starting when he was a
pioneer photographer on a South Dakota Indian reservation. Negotiations, how-
ever , were started last spring for the purchase of the collection and after as-
surance had been given that the collection would not be taken out of the Sioux
country, and that it would be properly housed and cared for, arrangements were
made for the sale.
One Of The Cases Showing Good Examples Of Sioux Beadwork
12
This Case Includes Bone Necklaces Of Various Types, Courting
Flutes, Dance Whistles, Game Sticks and Dolls.
For the past year the collection has been displayed under the super-
vision of Mr. Anderson in the new Museum Building at Rapid City, constructed
specifically for the purpose by the city with the help of W.P-A- During the
past summer the Museum was visited by nearly 150, COO tourists- At a meeting
held at the Pine Ridge Indian Agency on November 11, at which Rapid City of-
ficials and the Hon. Francis Case, member of Congress, were present, an agree-
ment was reached whereby the city agreed to turn over to the Indian Office the
sole use of the Museum Building and in return the Indian Service agreed to
maintain in the building a permanent Sioux museum collection. It was further
agreed that under the supervision of the Indian Office a sales booth would be
operated for the sale of authentic high-quality Sioux Indian arts and crafts.
It is proposed to divide the collection into three parts. One part
will be housed in the new fire-resistant high school building at Pine Ridge.
A second part will be temporarily housed in the crafts building at the Rosebud
Agency until such time as the new high school building is constructed, when it
will be permanently housed in space specifically designed for it in the new
building. The third part will be retained in the museum building at Rapid City
and will be supplemented with Sioux artifacts which have been gathered over a
period of years throughout the entire Sioux country.
13
The development of a sales booth in connection with the muse-am will
provide for the Sioux area an excellent mitlet for arts and crafts of the
Sioux people. It will also give the general public an opportunity to purchase
high-quality Indian goods, for it must be borne in mind that the sales booth
will deal only in superior Indian merchandise.
TROUBLESOME INDIANS SHOULD BE CONFINED IN PENAL SETTLEMENTS ,
OLD ANNUAL REPORT ADVOCATED
(From The Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1879)
"A penal settlement for the confinement and reformation of the more
turbulent and troublesome individuals among the various Indian tribes is a
pressing want and immediate action should be taken for the establishment of
such a settlement. For the worst class of refractory Indians one settlement
should be in Florida which is far enough away from Indian reservations to make
any attempt at escape hopeless. Another settlement should be established in
the Northwest, at some point where a considerable quantity of arable land can
be found so that Indians who are thus restricted in their liberty may be
taught to work for their support.
"It is impossible to properly govern a barbarous people like our
wilder Indians without being able to inflict some punishment for wrongdoing
that shall be a real punishment to the offender. At the present time the mil-
itary are called upon to suppress insurrections and to chastise by the penal-
ties and losses of war to those who rebel against the government- These are
temporary evils to the Indians and unless the punishment inflicted is unusual-
ly severe the lesson is soon forgotten. Moreover in such cases chastisement
often falls heavily on innocent parties instead of the guilty. If the Indian
Office had a penal settlement where turbulent individuals among the tribe
could be placed, they could be taken from their homes to the place of punish-
ment without disturbing the general peace and the prompt infliction of a pun-
ishment of this kind would tend to curb the evil-disposed and prevent them
from stirring up outbreaks. In fact, there is nothing the Indian would dread
more than to be deprived of his liberty.
"Such a settlement should be guarded by a sufficient force to exer-
cise perfect discipline and such prisoners should be taught trades as well as
agriculture. A school of correction of this kind would be of inestimable val-
ue to the Indian Service and it would exercise a reformatory influence that
could not be obtained by simple confinement. Useful occupation would in most
cases enable them to be returned to their homes in an advanced condition of
civilization."
14
THE STORY OF ALASKA'S REINDEER
By D. E. Thomas, Chief Of Alaska Section
Reindeer At (Lower Yukon) Marshall, Alaska
There are on this continent over half a million animals not native
to North America, whose ancestors were imported through Congressional appropria-
tion. They are the Alaska reindeer.
When the United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867 there
were no reindeer on the North American Continent. At that time the few white
men in Alaska were mostly Russian employees of the Imperial Russian Government
and the fur- trading companies.
Credit for this industry as it exists today is due principally to the
vision of two men - the Reverend Sheldon Jackson, who was General Agent for the
U. S. Bureau of Education in Alaska from 1885 to 1907, and to Captain Michael
Healy, commanding officer of the United States Revenue Cutter "Bear."
During the late "seventies and early 'eighties, Dr. Jackson had been
in charge of the mission work of the Presbyterian Church in the Rocky Mountain
and Pacific Northwest areas, and subsequently in Alaska. In the course of his
supervisory work, Dr. Jackson came to know Alaska well- When the Federal Gov-
ernment decided to establish schools under the Department of the Interior in
what was then the District of Alaska, it was logical that Dr. Jackson should
be chosen as the first general agent for the U. S. Bureau of Education, to
which the administration of these schools was assigned.
On one of his first trips to Alaska, Dr. Jackson had found the Eski-
mos thriving on the native food supply of seal, walrus, whale, fish and game.
A year or two later, visiting this sajne area, he had found whole villages al-
most wiped out by starvation, and the ground strewn with the bones of men, wo-
men and children. He talked with the few emaciated survivors who told of the
famine caused by the depletion of their native food supplies. Always somewhat
15
subject to fluctuation in numbers, the wild caribou were disappearing from the
coastal areas and the whaling fleet had made severe inroads on the whales and
walrus which constituted a major portion of the natives' food supply. Not only
was the food supply disappearing, but the raw materials for clothing as well.
Their pioneer missionary leader, deeply affected by the misery of
these formerly vigorous people, discussed the problem in detail with Captain
Michael Healy of the "Bear" , on his return voyage. Captain Healy had, in the
course of his travels, often visited the Chuckchees, Eskimos living on the
Siberia side of Bering Strait, and had observed the large reindeer herds owned
by these people which offered insurance against famine during the periodical
depletion of wild game and sea food. Captain Healy suggested the importation
of some of these reindeer to Alaska. Dr. Jackson was fired with enthusiasm
over the idea and presented it to William T. Harris, Commissioner of Education,
on his return to Washington. The Department backed the project and a number
of Senators and Congressmen became interested, including Senator Henry M. Tel-
ler, of Colorado, who became an especially enthusiastic supporter. The first
year, however, the appropriation failed to pass. Dr. Jackson obtained approv-
al to appeal to the public. Churches, newspapers and welfare groups became
interested and some $2,000 was raised and placed at Dr. Jackson's disposal, with
which the first shipments totaling some 186 reindeer were purchased in Siberia f
carried on the "Bear" and landed on wh^t is now Teller, Alaska, in 1891 and
1892. The following year Congress made an appropriation for further purchases
and between 1892 and 1902, 1,280 reindeer were* imported into Alaska.
In 1902 the Bussian
Government issued a Ukase for-
bidding any further exporta-
tion of reindeer from Siberia.
Thus it is from these two im-
portations that the present
herds have descended.
The problem re-
mained as to the training of
Eskimos to handle the rein-
deer herds- The inhabitants
of Lapland had owned large
reindeer herds for centuries
and were well versed in their
care and in the use of reindeer products. Dr. Jackson was authorized to visit
Lapland and to make contracts with a number of Lapps experienced in the rein-
deer business to move with their families to Alaska, to live there for a spec-
ified period and to give instruction to Eskimo herders selected by the Bureau
of Education. The Lapps were engaged, crossed the Atlantic, the United States
by railroad to San Francisco, and then sailed to Alaska- (Seattle did not be-
come an important city and port of departure for Alaska until after 1898.)
Nearly all of these Lapps and their descendants remained in Alaska permanently
and many of them today are well-to-do residents of the Territory.
Teller, Alaska
16
A second problem confronting the officials who were inaugurating the
Reindeer Service in Alaska was the distribution of the reindeer so that they
would reach the greatest possible number of Eskimos. The first contracts made
by the Bureau of Education were with the various missionary denominations with
headquarters in northwestern Alaska. These contracts provided that approximate-
ly one hundred reindeer be transferred from the Government to the specified
mission on condition that the mission, over a period of years, train a given
number of young Eskimos in the care and management of the deer. At the end of
the specified period the missions were to return to the Government the same
number of reindeer loaned them. In the meantime, a portion of the increase was
to be transferred to the reindeer apprentices; the remainder were to be retained
by the missions as foundation herds.
As finally worked out, this apprenticeship system called for a four-
year training of promising young Eskimos. During their period of apprentice-
ship, they received food and clothing to the value of about $300 a year; in ad-
dition they received reindeer annually, the number varying from six their first
year to ten during their third and fourth years. At the end of the four years,
each apprentice owned a herd of approximately fifty reindeer and became a
qualified reindeer herder. Contracts were then entered into with these herders
to train apprentices under the same system. Through this endless chain the
reindeer were distributed throughout northern and western Alaska. This system
was drawn up in large part by William T. Lopp, formerly a Congregational mis-
sionary and later a holder of various government posts in Alaska, including
those 6f Superintendent of Education of Natives and General Reindeer Superin-
tendent.
On November 1, 1929, the Alaska Reindeer Service was transferred from
the Bureau of Education to the supervision of the Governor of Alaska, undpr-
whose jurisdiction it remained until July 1, 1937, when it was again transferred
to the Office of Indian Affairs, which had in the meantime taken over health and
education work among Alaska Natives.
Whether or not the industry can ever be made a profitable commercial
venture, the Natives of Alaska owe to the importation of reindeer a large share
of what economic security they have. Not only is reindeer meat important in'
their diet; most of their clothing as well comes from reindeer. Mukluk uppers
(boots), parkas, mittens, trousers and inside parkas - usually made of fawn
skins - all depend on reindeer skins for their material.
Reindeer require little care. They secure their own food both winter
and summer, living on reindeer moss in winter and grasses and other vegetation
in summer. They need no shelter. They do require some herding throughout the
year in order to prevent straying, and they also need some protection from
predatory animals, especially from the wolves which in the past few years have
increased in number in the reindeer country.
In the late fall, the deer are rounded up, driven into corrals - when
they are available - and butchered. The meat is put into the natural cold
storage which underlies most of Alaska - the glacial ice found anywhere between
one 'and three feet below the ground's surface. Most reindeer herds are run by
17
native cooperatives which were first sponsored by the U. S. Office of Education
and which have been further encouraged by the Indian Service. Ownership is in-
dicated by various ear cuts and these are registered with the Territorial Gov-
ernment .
Lona E. Morlander , Indian Service teacher at Yakut at , describes a
reindeer roundup near Kivalina in preparation for the annual shipment of car-
casses on the "'North Star."
"Kobruvuk walked slowly, deliberately, into the midst of the
now slowly-milling animals. He raised his rifle. The ping of the
bullet sang out ... The deer kept milling gently, showing very lit-
tle excitement as shot after shot felled companions standing shoul-
der to shoulder with them.
"Suddenly a cry rang out. 'Kohneetl 1 (Reindeer!) I saw four
or five of the older natives rushing down to the shore of the lagoon.
A section of the herd led by one antlered buck, braver than the rest,
had made a dash for liberty via the lagoon-
"The old Eskimos took to their small skin boats. What a racel
The light craft, four of them, shot out alongside the deer which
were swimming desperately for the mainland- But the herders soon
had the swimming deer cut off from the mainland. With wild gutter-
al shouts and waving of their single kayak paddles, the. Eskimo herd-
ers in the water did some quick work and managed to drive about
half the escaping deer back to the spit. The rest sped across the
tundra in long spring strides and were soon lost to sight in the
foothills.
"As I watched, the butchering continued, but the firing
ceased because the ammunition became exhausted- Lassoing and
stabbing were now in order. Females were spared. And so the butch-
ering continued into the Arctic night, whose twilight lasted long
enough to enable the workers to finish their two-day task of prepar-
ing five hundred deer for shipment-"*
The exportation of reindeer on a large scale would not seem, on the
basis of present conditions, to be likely to be commercially profitable. The
Loraen Reindeer Corporation and its subsidiaries attempted, during the past
fifteen or twenty years, to build up a profitable export business in connection
with its holdings of Alaska reindeer. Large sums were invested in the project.
Reindeer were slaughtered in considerable numbers; abattoirs were established
in Alaska; and the meat exported to the United States for sale. The high cost
of operation in Alaska and the high cost of transportation to Seattle, however,
worked against the success of the project. The largest number exported in any
one year was probably some eight or ten thousand.
* Excerpted with permission from " The Alaska Sportsman ."
18
The Alaska Eskimos have sent a number of shipment e to Seattle on the
Indian Service vessels, "North Star" and "Boxer." During the past few years,
the only reindeer exported by the Eskimos have been approximately 1,000 car-
casses shipped on the "North Star" once a year on the vessel's return trip from
its Arctic cruise. This meat has been disposed of almost entirely in Alaska,
at various stops er. route back to Seatle.
The Alaska reindeer is a comparatively small animal which weighs from
100 to 125 pounds dressed. The meat is prime during only a comparatively short
portion of the year. The animals are semi -wild and frequently the herds are lo-
cated at considerable distances from the Eskimo villages. The cost of rounding
up the deer, slaughtering them, dressing the carcasses, and of cold storage and
transportation to Seattle, is so great that it is not practical to sell the
meat in the States in competition with beef, pork and lamb.
In September 1937, Congress passed legislation (50 Stat. 900), which
authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to purchase, for the benefit of the
Eskimos and other Natives of Alaska, all of the reindeer owned by white indi-
viduals, by Lepos and by missions, together with abattoirs and other -oroperty
used in connection with the reindeer industry, to the end that the reindeer in-
dustry in Alaska will belong exclusively to the Eskimos and other natives. It
is estimated that Natives already own two-thirds of the reindeer. The sum of
$2,000,000 was authorized to be appropriated for this purpose, but so far no
appropriation has been made.
Under the 1939 Interior Department Appropriation Act, the chairmen
of the Senate and House Appropriation Committees were empowered to appoint a
committee of three to visit Alaska to investigate the reindeer industry and to
jnake recommendations as to the advisability of the government's carrying through
the purchase of all non-Native-owned reindeer. The committee which included
Mr. C. E. Eachford, Dr. D. T. Wilson and Mr. Frank H. Beeds , during its three-
months' visit last summer attended a number of reindeer round-ups, inspected
slaughterhouses and took testimony from various interested persons. It will
make its recommendations to the Congress some time this month, and its findings
are eagerly awaited.
The Arrival Of A Plane At Point Barrow, Alaska,
The Northermost Point On The Continent
19
PAWNEB HOGANS
By John P. Harrington, Smithsonian Institution
On the "lower course of the Loup River in Southern Nebraska, there
survived until sixty-three years ago, villages of earth-covered houses similar
in construction and appearance to Navajo hogans of the Southwest. These were
villages of the Skidi Pawnee who lived on the lower Loup until about 1875, when
they were removed to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. Skidi Pawnee means "Wolf
Pawnee. The Loup River takes its name from the French loup , wolf.
These Pawnees were so unlucky as to locate their village on some of
the best land in Nebraska, where the famous Mormon Trail west passed up the
Loup. Prom earliest ti-nes they were molested and crowded out by white settlers.
In the '70s, although they had sold off most of their land, there was still a
Pawnee Reservation thirty miles by fifteen miles, with its agency at Genoa on
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Photograph By Mr. W. H. Jackson Taken In 1871 Of The Skidi Pawnee Village
Of. "Hogans" On The Lovqp River Near Genoa, Nebraska, A Remarkable Picture Of
The Last Surviving Pawnee Settlement On The Loup, Taken Just Before The
Removal Of The Skidi Pawnee To Indian Territory.
20
the Loup River. The brick Indian school stands there to this day, sole sur-
vival of reservation times. The villages have long since been reduced to house
debris mounds.
Although Dr. Waldo R . Wedel, Assistant Curator of Archaeology, U. 5.
National Museum, has completed a recent paper on Pawnee archaeology, Mr. A. T.
Hill of the Nebraska State Historical Society is probably the greatest special-
ist on Pawnee archaeology. In 1922 Nebraska people became interested in exca-
vating the spot mentioned in the Zebulon M. Pike journals as the locality where
the American flag was first raised in Nebraska. Mr. Hill discovered this site
to be on the south bank of the Republican River, near Red Cloud. Mr. Hill
thoroughly excavated the site and found specimens which are now practically all
located in the State Historical Museum at Lincoln.
Careful digging usually lays bare a hogan floor, with post holes.
Pawnee houses differ from the Navajo hogan by having center posts. Among the
Pawnee, as among the Navajo, the hogan door is said by old Indians to be al-
ways to the east, so that the rays of the rising sun can awaken the inmates.
Excavation of the Loup hogans show how far these traditions may be invention
only. Doors were found to open not only to the east but to the southeast and
even, rarely, to the southwest. The idea evidently was to place the door away
from the northwest where blew the most unpleasant winds.
The sizes of the Loup houses were sometimes enormous, larger than any
Navajo hogan. They ranged from 24 to 45 feet in diameter, while a tall man
could easily stand under the eaves. The center of the hogan rose to twelve or
even eighteen feet.
The excavations also brought to li^at old buffalo skull altars and
graves with early trade materials such as army canteens and earthenware pots-
In 1822, Major S. H. Long, while visiting the Loup villages, tells of hearing
the story of an Indian Lochinvar. The Pawnees were about to sacrifice a maiden
to the Morningstar. She was tied to a framework. Suddenly a chief's son came
riding in, cut the thongs and rode off with the girl. In Washington, D. C. , a
few years later, members of a girls' academy had a silver medal cast, showing
on one side the freeing of the maiden and on the other side the inscription "To
The Bravest Of Braves." In 1920 some pot hunters digging around the ruins turned
up this medal, which conceivably had been a possession of the rescuing son of
the chief.
The occupation of the Loup River Valley by the Skidi Pawnee is very
old - in fact the oldest ascertained occupation of any locality in Nebraska. The
Pawnees were known to the Spanish of the Southwest as Panani . Pawnee -slaves
were an article of commerce, being purchased by the Spanish from the Comanche
and other tribes. Mexican people of New Mexico are in part descended from the
early Panani s.
21
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23
TH;<: INDIAN SERVICE MAKiSS ITS ANNUAL Ri£P0RT FOR 1938
The Northern Cheyennes on the Tongue River Reservation in Montana
last year borrowed money from the Government and used their principal asset,
grass, to feed cattle bought with their borrowed money. They sold out at a
profit, and are eager to try again next year. This is one of the many examples
of Indian economic development cited in the annual report of the Office of In-
dian Affairs for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1938 and released December 18.
This report is incorporated in the report of the Secretary of the In-
terior and may be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents, Government
Printing Office, Washington, D. C, for fifty cents.
This year the report records solid accomplishment in varied fields.
More, it reports an intangible but vital factor: the resurgence of Indians'
own confidence in their future.
To quote the report: "To think of Indians is to think of land." On
security in possession and use of land Indian life depends for its continued
integrity and vigor. This administration has continued to add to Indian land
in various ways: by purchases under the Indian Reorganization Act; by restora-
tions of ceded land, also made under the I.R.A.; and by special purchases.
Since 1933 the Indian estate has been increased by 2,540,000 acres-
■The report cites the Indian Service's own consciousness of short-
coming in one phase of its land program: the failure to solve the accumulated
snarl of the allotment and heirship problem. Land exchanges have made a minute
beginning in easing this gnawing problem and organization of Indian groups is
paving the way for a concerted effort by Indians and Indian Service workers to
solve it; to date, however, it remains unsolved-
Conservation has been the theme running through much of Indian Service
activity: conservation of existing physical values, and upbuilding for the fu-
ture. The 46,000,000 acres of Indian range and forest area - an area larger
than North Dakota - are being administered on a permanent yield basis. Analysis
of the administrative cost of forest and range management shows the remarkably
low figure of nine-tenths of a cent per acre; a figure so low, in fact, as to
indicate inadequate protection of this large share of Indian property.
The Indian Division of the Civilian Conservation Corps, employing a
daily average of 6,907 Indian enrollees, has done a far-reaching and many-sided
job. Range protection through water development, fencing, reseeding and erosion
control works; timber protection through truck trail, fire lookout and telephone
construction, and through pest control, are examples. Physical work on land,
a chance for self-support, and training of enrollees have continued to make
this program a revitalizing factor in Indian life.
24
Space does not permit a review here of accomplishments and trends in
other fields of Indian Service work. More fruitful use of land by Indians is
the objective of the Extension Division's farming and livestock program. Ir-
rigation works, especially small projects for community use as supplemental to
a livestock economy, are being expanded, and 17,000 additional acres are under
irrigation as compared with 1937.
A rich -and varied school program, strongly rooted in local needs, in
which community participation and training for life are emphasized, is the
goal of the Indian Service. A dispassionate review of the year's work shows
that the Indian Service is nearer this goal, both in number of children in
school, and in the quality of training available to them.
The Indian Service health program has pushed prevention as well as
care, and th^re are definite indications that tuberculosis, as the greatest
enemy of Indian health, is declining. Indian Service physicians have made im-
portant contributions to the conquest of trachoma, dreaded eye disease, and
new treatment irethods may produce momentous results. New and well-equipped
hospitals give Indian Service medical workers new weapons in their fight to
achieve better health among Indians.
A vital indication of Indian progress, and one on which adequate and
reliable information has been lacking, is Indian income. Compared with white
standards, the earnings of Indians are still low. The 1938 report shows that
the average yearly income for an Indian family of four to be about $600. In
this figure are included earned (about two-thirds) and unearned income, and
money and goods from work relief and direct relief are also included. Only an
inconsiderable number of Indians receive more than $1,000 a year. These higher
incomes, in most cases, are primarily gained from unearned sources such as oil
royalties or leases. While the Indian is definitely in the lower-income third
of the population, in many cases Indian gainful activities, through planned
development and improved management of his assets, have become increasingly
stable and productive. Compilation of annual statistical data on Indian income,
heretofore not available, was begun in 1937, and future comparisons should
prove illuminating.
The development of Indian management of Indian affairs is not spec-
tacular, measured statistically; in terms of individual reservation and commun-
ity cases, however, it is more than heartening. The report shows 82 tribes,
numbering 93,520 Indians, as organized under the Indian Reorganization Act by
June 30, and of these, 57 tribes, numbering 64,000 Indians, as incorporated and
in a position to assume a large degree of management of their own affairs. The
sum of $520,000 was lent during the year to organized tribes through the Act's
revolving credit fund, for various individual and group enterprises, and the
record so far of production and repayment is impressive.
The trend toward Indian self-government is becoming increasingly power-
ful: Indians are seeing their own future more clearly, and are moving toward
that future. Progress in some fields is slow and the Indian Service is well
aware of its own shortcomings in execution of some phases of its program. But
the goal of economic self-sufficiency, of a vital and progressive Indian life,
is measurably nearer .
25
" MANOMIN " , TEE WILD RICE OF THE LAKE COUNTRY
(Taken from material furnished by Mr. Mark L. Bums, Superintendent,
Consolidated Chippewa Agency in Minnesota. Credit is also due Mr. L. B. Miller
and Mrs. Astrid C. Erickson of the Great Lakes Agency in Wisconsin,
who had previously supplied material.)
.^>^f^t*
«^«W^^S5S©|s
An Excellent Stand Of Wild Rice Along
The Edge Of A Stream
Slowly the birch-
bark canoe glides through the
foggy marsh canal. The silver
gray water gurgles as the pole
is pushed down. The sun glints
eold on the ripnles and the
breeze sings gently in the
tall rice stalks.
It is full autumn
and the Chippewas have re-
turned to the streams and
lakes of Minnesota and Wiscon-
sin to harvest the wild rice.
The canoes must be poled slow-
ly. Paddles would break the
delicate stems- The canoes
are broad, with a beam of
thirty inches, double pointed,
and light . The Indian who
gathers in the rice bends the
heads of the stems so that
the grain hangs inside the boat . The careful harvester taps only the ripe ker-
nels- The Chippewa, or Ojibway, leaves his lake seeded. That is why the white
man's machine harvester is not used for the wild rice crop. In fact, so super-
ior has the Indian method proved that the State Conservation Commissioner in
Minnesota has prohibited the use of machines for wild rice harvesting.
Wild rice is an annual plant, springing from seed every year, grow-
ing in lakes and slow-flowing streams which have a mud-alluvial bottom. The
kernels, when ripe, do not remain on the stalks long but drop to the water and
anchor themselves below in the mud and produce the crop the following year.
Wild rice is susceptible to storms and frosts and is wholly dependent upon
proper water levels- If the lake or water levels are excessively high, to use
the Indian t«rm "it is drowned out" and the stalks are lifted off of the stems
and float; if it is low, especially for several seasons, instead of the wild
rice crop rush grasses and weeds of various species such as cattails come up.
Wild rice has been a staple of the Lakes Indians as far back as there
are any records- Father Hennepin in 1683 records in his diary that, "In the
lakes grew an abundance of wild oets ... provided that the lnkes were not over
26
three feet deep." So essential was the rice crop to feeding the tribes over
the wild winters that many bloody wars were fought between the Chippewas and
the Sioux over the rice beds •
With the centuries little change in the implements used for harvest-
ing the rice has taken place. After gathering, the grain is dried in the open
air, or parched carefully over a slow fire. Then, either by treading with the
feet (wearing new moccasins for the occasion) or by beating with sticks against
cedar slabs the Indian hulls the dark slate-colored grain. Sometimes this tra-
ditional method is supplanted by attaching a barrel, through which has been
driven a pronged iron bar,
to the back wheel of a v thun-
der buggy . w
The grain is
winnowed by pouring it from
dish to dish of birch-bark,
or by fanning it gently when
placed upon blankets. Thus
prepared, wild rice is a
compact, nourishing staple,
and one easily transported
and easily stored- In old-
er days the crop was com-
munally held, with, however,
the recognition of certain
family privileges. One-
third of it was cached be-
low the frost line to be ex-
humed only with the spring
thaws when food was scarcest
Today the Indian has taken
some pages from the white
man's book and a system of
private ownership of an ex-
acting nature has replaced
the old.
Note How Thin The Wild Rice Crop Is In This
Lake. If Improper Harvesting Methods Are
Employed By Whites - Gathering It Green And
Using Large Boats Which Break The Stalks -
It Will Not Be Long Before This Wild
Rice Bed Will Be Completely Destroyed.
In the halcyon days of a better era for the Indian the wild rice crop
flourished on all the shallow lakes. As the white man came to own many of the
lake sites he forced the Indian to pay rent for his rice holding* either in
cash or in kind. This was not only hard on the Indians but it shattered their
traditional methods of farming the rice crop. This was marked by two main
features: the insuring of the following year's crop by not indiscriminately
harvesting all the seed and by the sharing of the crop on a tribal basis.
Bfforts have been made by the Federal Government to restore much of
the rice crop to the Indians- In land acquisition projects rice beds have been
purchased and camp sites have been made available during the rice harvesting
season. More of these purchases are planned. Particularly worthy of note is
the work that has been done in this connection by the CCC-ID . On the harvest
27
ai
u w
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s
<M O
•H O
* 5
a>
do a
C t-i
£ a
pp ®
XJ O
ci
l-H <D
a
o o
A Primitive Method Of Separating
The Husks Prom The Kernels
camping grounds, some of them centuries old,
wellB have teen driven, trails cut, pumps
for pure water installed, sanitary provisions
made, and solid earth docks on log founda-
tions erected. Lakes have been reseeded.
Canals for the harvest craft have been cut.
Distance- saving pole walks have been built
which eliminate miles of long trekking. Ad-
ministration of these new campsites, it is
planned, will be left to the Chippewa Trib-
al Executive Committee.
Due to reckless exploitation of
some of the former rice beds certain lakes
have dried up. Under the direction of the
Indian Service, Indian labor under the
Emergency Conservation Work program has con-
structed dams which maintain the level of
lakes on a year-round basis.
The result of such intelligent
conservation practices has been to insure
to the Chippewa families who make the annual
pilgrimage to the rice harvest a crop which
will no longer hit hi^is of 150 tons and
then, the very next year, drop to a low of
twenty-five tons. The all-important water level in the lakes will be kept
constant and the crop will therefore be stabilized. This will tend also to
stabilize the price which at present varies between 25 cents and 45 cents a
pound for ripe rice. In short the Chippewa* will have for an indefinite time
to come a sure and developed
source of income and food. It
is estimated that of the to-
tal crop of this delicate
food, esteemed by epicures,
the Indians harvest seventy
per cent .
On early fall morn-
ings the canoes can dart out
on the limpid surfaces of
the lakes from new vantage
points- The men will know
that a good crop of the cere-
al await 8 them, and the women
can welcome back the canoes
at sundown, laden with the
two hundred pounds of the
gift that in the past out of
memory the Great Spirit gave
their ancestors.
A Chippewa Canoe -Maker Constructing A
Birch-Bark Canoe Preparatory
To Gathering Wild Bice.
29
INDIANS IN THE NEWS
("Indians At Work" quotes, from time to time, pertinent newspaper
comment on current Indian matters. This is taken from the
"Courier-Express* 1 , Buffalo, New York, November 23, 1938.)
Attorney For Six Nations Contradicts Dies Witness ; Indians Much Better Off
Under Collier , Says Codd , Praising Wheeler -Howard Act
Robert M. Codd, attorney for the Six Nations confederacy and a lead-
ing authority on Indian affairs, said last night that Mrs. Alice Lee Jemison,
who testified in Washington yesterday that the condition of the Indians today
is "absolutely outrageous" doesn't know the real situation.
"So far as New York State is concerned, Indians have become immensely
Detter off since John Collier assumed control of the Federal Indian Bureau,"
Mr. Codd declared. "Mrs. Jemison is not Indian -minded . She lived off the
reservation and was educated off the reservation- Possibly she doesn't know
what's going on in her own Cattaraugus Reservation."
Never Private Ownership ■ Mrs. Jemison's charge that the American
Civil Liberties Union sponsored the Wheeler -Howard Act of 1934 and that the
measure encouraged "communal ownership" among the Indians evoked a laugh from
Mr. Codd.
"Communal ownership is traditional on Indian reservations," he 9aid.
"There never was such a thing as private ownership. Even the water and miner-
al rights are owned in common. It ever has been thus."
Mrs. Jemison, who worked for two years as a stenographer in Mr. Codd's
office here, was identified at Washington as a representative of the American
Indian Federation.
"This organization has no standing in the Six Nations," Mr. Codd
said. "No local Indians are connected with it that I know of and I ought to
know, for I represent the Indians of the confederacy living in New York State
and the Oneidas in Wisconsin.
"I do not believe the Civil Liberties Union had much to do with the
Wheeler-Howard Act. The measure certainly was not communistic. It was de-
signed to help the Indian help himself. I campaigned for its adoption at res-
ervation elections and I am not a Communist - I'm a Republican."
Act Benefits All Indians ■ "The act was defeated by the New York
State Indians except the Cayugas , I believe. The Western Indians put it over,
and all Indians have been reaping benefits under its provisions ever since.
30
"For instance, on the Cattaraugus Reservation the Do-Sho-Way Author-
ity, a cooperative apiculture project which I helped to organize this year,
is in actual operation. Indians there have a tomato-growing and canning plant
that already has brought them profit .
"This year for the first time the Cattaraugus Indians have conducted
a business from beginning to end without white interference or red tape. They
have grown their tomatoes without outside aid and packed them without outside
aid. Their entire production has been bought by the Government and they will
receive around $10,000 on their first venture into cooperative agriculture • Is
this communism? I think not.
"To make sure the money they have earned is not squandered, payments
will be made to the Cattaraugus Indians over a period of ten months. This will
insure them money during the hard non-growing months.
"The old women of the reservations - and they are the real bosses -
will tell you that far from being 'outrageous', conditions now are better than
ever. For the first time, they will tell you, they can be sure of groceries
in the house during the cold months. This is the result of the Wheeler-Howard
Act of 1934."
Praises Collier's Work - "No praise is too great for the work of Mr.
Collier as head of the Indian Bureau. He has administered Indian affairs with
an eye to the well-being of the Indian, his economic uplift and his social bet-
terment and he has done a mighty good job. There are Indians working in his
offices at Washington where formerly there were nothing but white people.
"The policy of the Indian Bureau under Mr. Collier is to back up the
Indian wherever he deserves backing up, and to provide undertakings which will
keep him off relief and enable him to maintain his self-respect .
"A lot of sob stuff won't get the Indians anything. What they need
is work, not a lot of mewling over conditions which do or do not exist.
"This policy is being followed on the Cattaraugus Reservation and
with the expansion of the cooperative agriculture project next year more and
more Indians will be in business for themselves and become independent of re-
lief or charity. The $10,000 'take' this year is a mighty good start. And
the beauty of it is this: the Indians conduct their business direct with the
Government free of expenses, taxes, worry, salesmen, debts, and red tape! Out-
rageous conditions, indeedt"
Note: Mr. Codd is not in any way connected with the Office of Indian
Affairs.
* * * » *
Cover Page Picture : The picture which appears on the cover page of
this issue shows how maple sap is boiled- The photograph appears through' the
courtesy of Monroe Paul Killy.
31
UNIQUE CCC-ID PROJECT PROVES VALUABLE AT CARSON AGENCY IN NEVADA
By Mrs. Edith V. A. Murphey*
With the purchase of cattle for Carson Agency, Nevada, from the dust-
bowl area - animals which had been living under drought conditions - there
arose the problem of poisonous plant food. Drought-starved cattle will eat
everything they come to, including poisonous plants and loco plants which con-
tain habit -forming drugs. Native cattle will not use these plants ordinarily;
however, if the ranges have been overgrazed and the better plants and grasses
killed out, even native stock will eat the poorer and tougher plants, many of
which are habit-forming and even poisonous; Juices of these plants are some-
times milky, bitter and unpalatable; even so, starvation plays no favorites,
and when stock become used to these plants they will eventually become addicts
and will eat nothing else. They grow thinner and less valuable daily- This
process may take a period of months in the case of a diet of loco plants. Lark-
spurs, milkweeds and poison hemlocks act more a_uickly, however, and death speed-
ily results.
With more information about range plants at Carson obviously needed,
it was decided last June to use the Reese River CCC-ID camp as base for a
thorough first-hand study. It was understood that CCC-ID enrollees would help
me, but the course was optional.
Most of my collecting was done on regular project trips, to save ex-
pense, although a driver and truck were occasionally assigned to me for a spe-
cial trip.
The plan was to collect, press and mount the plants methodically in
scrapbooks, thus making a portable collection which could be taken to any part
of the Carson Jurisdiction at a moment's notice in case of cattle trouble.
Pressing the plants was under my direct supervision, but the actual
work of mounting the specimens was done by Indian CCC workers who hud been
assigned to me. It was delicate work and the men did it meticulously. Speci-
mens were fastened to the right-hand page of the scrapbook with transparent
tape and a sheet of moisture-proof cellophane was then taped over the whole
page as protection. On the left -band page were notes for each plant, giving
full information as to the soil in which it grew, its companion plants, eleva-
tion at which it is found, habits of growth, and its value or detriment to the
range. Identifications, in which the University of California and the U. S.
Bureau of Plant Industry helped by furnishing scientific names, were made as
exact as possible. Indian names, and the Indians' uses for the plants were al-
so included.
* Mrs- Edith V. A. Murphey, who has long been interested in Indian welfare
work, was employed as acting camp assistant at Carson Agency during the past
summer .
32
It soon became a matter of pride with the enrollees to bring in un-
usual plants- And so our collection grew, to become, I am confident, the most*
complete plant collection, in portable form, for this part of Nevada.
We had several class forums at which forage plants and poisonous
plants were discussed and at which experienced Indian stockman contributed val-
uable information. Equally as valuable as the classes, however, were the con-
stant casual visits, during which the properties of the various plants were
debated and knowledge of the Indian uses of the plants augmented-
A duplicate set of the scrapbooks was made for Mr. Don C Foster,
Agricultural Extension Agent for Carson Agency, and several hundred spare spec-
imens were mounted in folders and arranged by locality. If Fort McDermitt, for
instance, has cattle trouble due to poisonous plants, the twenty frames and
scrapbooks, together with the Fort McDermitt folder would furnish a complete
picture of that terrain.
I might add that I was the only woman in a camp of sixty men for a
month. I never saw a fight or heard any bad language; moreover, the men were
so cordial that I never felt unwanted or ill at ease. I enjoyed the project
greatly myself and I am of the .honest opinion that it produced a study of val-
ue in the Carson program of conserving and developing its range.
DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE ON WATER RESOURCES NAMED
Under date of September 30, First Assistant Secretary Ebert K. Burlew
approved the formation of a permanent committee in Washington to be known as
the Departmental Committee on Water Resources, with the following personnel:
N. C Grover, Chief Hydraulic Engineer, Geological Survey, Chairman;
E. F. Preece , Assistant Chief Engineer, National Park Service; Clay H. South-
worth, Assistant to the Director of Irrigation, Office of Indian Affairs; J. Q,.
Peterson, Scientist, Division of Grazing; Wesley R. Nelson, Chief, Division of
Engineering, Bureau of Reclamation; and F. M. Shore, Assistant to the Chief of
the Economic and Statistics Branch, Bureau of Mines.
The function of the committee is to act as contact agency with the
Water Resources Committee and keep the various offices and bureaus in the de-
partment acquainted with the activities of the main committee.
The Water Resources Committee is a branch of the National Resources
Committee, a federal agency established for the purpose of planning for wise
conservation and planned use of our national resources. It succeeded the func-
tions and duties of the older National Planning Board and the National Resources
Board.
33
ELINOR GREGG LEAVES INDIAN SgRVIOg
Miss Elinor D. Gregg, Director of Nursing, has submitted her resigna-
tion, effective December 31. Miss Gregg was graduated from the Walt ham School
of Nursing in Massachusetts, and since then she has been a leader in her profes-
sion. She was one of the pioneers in industrial nursing, and has held various
positions in connection with hospital nursing services. She was Superintendent
of the Infants' Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, at the outbreak of the World
War. Miss Gregg enlisted through the Red Cross as an Army nurse in the Harvard
unit, and for two years saw active service in field hospitals on both the Ar-
gonne and British fronts.
Following the War she delivered Chautauqua lectures on public health.
Later, at the request of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, she was assigned
by the American Red Cross to perform survey work and to conduct health demon-
strations among Indians. Miss Gregs entered the Indian Service August 1, 1924.
She was located on the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Reservations in South
Dakota, where she demonstrated the value of field work so successfully that
she was appointed Supervisor of Field Nurses and Field Matrons-
At the time Miss Gregg came into the Service there were positions
for 114 graduate nurses (of whom 15 actually were graduate nurses) and 54
field matrons and one field nurse. Under her direction this service has grown
until there are at present 659 graduate nurses, 143 of whom are engaged in
public health nursing activities.
Miss Gregg has helped and encouraged Indian girls to take nursing
courses at schools which rank high in the nursing world. She has made an ef-
fort to know each Indian student nurse, and from her first-hand knowledge of
the Indian Service has tried to guide them into the best channels for prepara-
tion of our Service. There are at present 60 Indian nurses in the Service and
ten are waiting for appointments. There are 52 Indian student nurses in ac-
credited schools of nursing.
Miss Gregg by h.^r devotion to the nursing profession and to the In-
dian Service has been rewarded by the regard in which she is held by the
nurses as a loyal personal friend and a trusted and inspiring leader.
TOOLS FOUND IN UTAH CAVE
Excavations in Bone Cave at Timpanagos Cave National Monument, Utah,
conducted by Brigham Young University, have brought to light Indian tools and
many bones. The latter were evidently taken into the cave by Indians, and not
by predatory animals, as had formerly been supposed. ( Reprinted from Facts and
Ar tifacts . )
34
OThifoS LEAVE INDIAN SERVICE ; MISS LAVINIA M ORRISON ;
JOHN B. DAWSON ; PAUL C. THOMPSON
Two members of long standing in the Washington Office are retiring
this month. Miss Lavinia Morrison, who transferred to the Indian Service in
1920 and who since that time has done faithful and efficient service, retired
from her post in the Personnel Office on December 31, 1938.
John E. Dawson, of the Land Division, who will retire at the end of the
month, has been in the Department of the Interior for the remarkable total of
forty-nine years, and in Indian work for forty-one years. His experience with
Indian affairs began in 1898 when he was transferred to the Indian Territory
Division, under the Office of the Secretary of the Interior, where he handled
Five Civilized Tribes matters during the complicated period following the
Curtis Act, which entailed abolition of tribal governments, division of the
Indians' land in severalty, and preparation of final rolls. When the Indian
Territory Division was abolished in 1907, Mr. Dawson was transferred to the
Office of Indian Affairs. He has continued to work on Five Civilized Tribes
matters, and his exhaustive knowledge in this field has become an office by-
word. Since 1912 he has worked on the famous Jackson Barnett case. He leaves
the Service with the satisfaction of just having completed an important and
much-needed compilation which will be entitled "Laws Relating To The Five
Civilized Tribes In Oklahoma, Annotated, 1890-1938." Mr. Collier wrote to
Mr. Dawson on his retirement,
"Your record has been enviable. I wish to express apprecia-
tion of your long and faithful service ... This is a very per-
sonal expression, and so many here would join in it. We don't
like to see you go - not at all I"
Mr. Paul C. Thompson, Associate Engineer in charge of engineering
work at the Billings District Office, recently resigned to accept private en-
gineering employment. Mr. Thompson entered the Indian Service's Irrigation
Division in 1933, and shortly thereafter was transferred to the Billings Of-
fice in connection with CCC-ID work. Mr. Raymond Murphy, Associate Engineer,
will assume Mr. Thompson's duties for the present.
UINTAH-OURAY IRRIGATION SURVEY COMPLETED
Work on the series of economic surveys of Indian irrigation projects,
authorized under the act of June 22, 1936, is progressing; under Agricultural
Economist A. L. Walker. Studies have been completed on the Uintah-Ouray Reser-
vation, Utah, and the report is being studied by members of the Washington Of-
fice staff. Studies are also in progress at Fort Hall, Idaho; and work will be
started at the Flathead Reservation in Montana and at San Carlos, Arizona, with-
in the next few months .
35
THE PALM SPRINGS PROBLEM - A STEP TOWARD SOLUTION
By W. 7. Toehlke, Assistant to the Commissioner
Progress in the settlement of the long-lived Palm Springs allotment
controversy is being made, and an equitable settlement of this troubling situa-
tion now seems possible.
The Agua Caliente or Palm Springs Band of Indians consists of less
than fifty persons, who live on an arid checker boarded reservation of some
33,000 acres in Southern California. On part of the white-owned land with
which the Indian land is interspersed there has developed Palm Springs, a fash-
ionable winter resort. The presence of reservation land in .the heart of the
now incorporated city of Palm Springs has produced high values and revenues for
the Indians. Also, it has created friction not only between Indians and the
white community but among the Indians as well. One cause of the internal con-
flict between Indian factions was the attempt in 1923 and 1929 to allot part of
the Palm Springs land to individual Indians against the opposition of a majority
In The Settlement Of The Palm Springs Problems, Scenic Parts Of The
Reservation, Such As The Area Photographed Above, Would Be Declared A National
Monument , Provided That A Plan Could Be Worked Out To Compensate
The Indians For The Surrender Of Such Areas.
36
of the band. The allotment process was never completed, but some of the In-
dians occupied by assignment the most valuable tentative allotments. More
than a year ago the claimants to these valuable tracts brought suit against
the United States in an effort to gain trust title to the proposed allotments.
The decision of the Federal District Court of the Southern District
of California, Central Division, reached last summer (24 Fed. Sup. 237) upheld
the Secretary of the Interior in declaring the proposed allotments void. Judge
Yankwich, in handing down the decision, said, in part: "So here the Palm
Springs Indians having aca.uired no vested right, and the power of the Secretary
to withhold approval being discretionary, we cannot compel action that would
give to the Indians the benefit of a right which they did not possess. We can-
not compel action that would distribute the choicest part of tribal lands to
a few individuals and would result in the spoliation of the others."
This decision has been accepted with good grace by the majority of
the Palm Springs Band. Members of the group are now considering the possibil-
ity of assignments instead of allotments.
Various plans for the sale or development of part of their valuable
Indian holdings are being considered. Senator Elmer Thomas, Chairman of the
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, at his. recent visit to Palm Springs, urged
the Indians to reach an agreement among themselves as to the course they want
to pursue, since legislative action will be difficult without agreement between
the Indians themselves on the one hand, and the Department of the Interior on
the other. A modified form of the proposed enabling act which had the approval
of the Palm Springs Indians last year has been prepared and will be submitted
to the band and to Congress. Mr. H. W. Shipe, Assistant to the Director of Ir-
rigation, met with the Agua Caliente Indians in October, and agreed to return
to Palm Springs in the near future to help them work out a just and fair solu-
tion of their problems-
*******
SOME CHEYENNE WORDS
(As given by the Muddy Creek Day School Pupils In Lame Deer, Montana)
Goo -ke-nay-ah bread
Hay-o-aunch butter
Vi-ki-mut sugar
Vi-di-uh flour
Woo-r»e-mups ( salt
Vi-ki-goo-ke-nay-ah . . . cake or cookies
Missie-sis potatoes
My-a-mints corn
Tsu-ah boy
Tsu-ay girl
Hid-dahn man
Sta-mah woman
Muh-sun-ne crazy
37
TREES FOR THE CHEYENNE RIVER RESERVATION . SOUTH DAKOTA
By Brnest G-. Hawkinaon, Junior Forester
Process Of Heeling In Tree Seedlings
In the Northern Great Plains country trees have an uphill fight at
best; and the recent years of drought, combined with insect pest at tacks, brought
natural reproduction of native trees and wild fruits to a standstill. Pressing
economic conditions, too, meant- a more rapid removal of existing timber for fuel
and lumber.
In 1935 a reforestation project was approved at the Cheyenne River
Reservation as part of the CCC program. Indigenous trees and shrubs were to
be propagated from seed.
Collection of plant material and the building of a nursery on the
banks of the Missouri River were the first steps. In 1936 the promising
start of native varieties was wiped out, as were other nurseries in the local-
ity, by hot winds and voracious attacks by insects.
The season of 1937 proved more favorable and with few exceptions, all
the tree seedlings did well - surprisingly well, considering the supposedly un-
propitious conditions of moisture and climate. Probably we must expect an off
year occasionally; but there is no doubt that in general trees can be grown
successfully here from seed.
Our distribution system is simple. Seedlings of usable sizes are
distributed either to individual Indians, to day schools, and similar groups
38
through the extension
workers or they are
used in CCC-IL tree
planting projects-
Somewhat "better re-
sults have been ob-
tained in growth and
survival in those
plots where planting
and after-care have
been under the super-
vision of CCC-ID work-
ers; this we feel, how-
ever, is not due to
lack of interest but
to an initial lack of
understanding of the
importance of cultiva-
tion and care after planting. This situation is rapidly being remedied through
an educational program- Small group meetings have been held over the reserva-
tion, at which the best known methods of handling nursery stock before and dur-
ing planting were actually demonstrated; open forums were also Jield on care of
trees in general. These open forums are meeting with good response. It is
very evident that the Indians in general are becoming " tree-conscious" , and
that they are keenly interested in the success of the venture. They are well
aware that a future supply of trees, both for shelter and wood material, must
be provided for by man's efforts in this part of the country.
The United States Forest Service has been a source of valuable infor-
mation and has also helped us generously by supplying us with seeds we were un-
able to secure otherwise. This project is, of course, really a part of the
United States Forest Service program, although it is being operated with In-
dian Service personnel.
Chinese Elm, Two Years Old From Seed
WASHINGTON OFFICE VISITORS
Recent visitors to the Washington Office have included Jasper W. El-
liott, Superintendent, Warm Springs Agency, Oregon; Charles L. Ellis, Superin-
tendent, Osage Agency, Oklahoma, who was accompanied by Mr. G-. B. Fulton, Trib-
al Attorney for the Osage Indian Tribe, together with a tribal delegation which
included Charles Whitehom, Joseph Mathews, Lee Pappan, Louis Denoya, Ed Simp-
kins, John Abbott, Paul Pitts and Frank Quinton; Emmet t E. McNeilly, Superin-
tendent, Rocky Boy's Agency, Montana; and A. G. McMillan, Assistant Superin-
tendent, Five Civilized Tribes Agency, Oklahoma.
Another recent visitor at the Washington Office has been H. Scudder
Mekeel, Director of the Laboratory of Anthropology of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
39
RAN&B REST AND E3VEGETATI0N STOP BLOWING- SANDS
Nava.j o Irrigation Project Near Kayenta , Arizona , Protected
Navajo families who have labored for years on an irrigation ditch
near Kayenta, Arizona, are jubilant today because revegetation has returned to
their overerazed range and they will not again face the weary task of shoveling
tons of sand from the main channel of their irrigation system.
Before range control allowed vegetation to return to the destroyed
land, it was a semi-annual task to clean the irrigation canal. The seemingly
insurmountable job once caused these Navajos to abandon all hope and their
parched land lay idle one season-
The Indian Service, in cooperation with Soil Conservation Service,
has come to the rescue and has been able to help a number of similar small farm
projects on the Navajo Reservation where abuse of the range by overgrazing has
directly affected the farming industry.
The Kayenta farming area is irrigated from a reservoir filled from
autumn run-off s in Laguna Creek. The ditch from Laguna Creek to the reservoir,
and from the reservoir to the farms, runs through soil containing much sand.
Overgrazing destroyed the vegetative cover, and wind, blowing over the bare
ground, was rapidly turning the land into a series of desolate sand dunes. Sand
filled the irrigation ditch almost as rapidly as it could be cleaned out.
In the fall of 1936, a total of 180 work-days were spent by men with
teams and 160 work-days by men working single-handed in cleaning the ditch
leading to the reservoir. The following spring, 330 work-days were required
by men with teams and 280 by men single-handed to clean the ditch from the
reservoir to the fields.
In the fall of 1937 the area surrounding the ditch was added to the
Kayenta Demonstration Area. This meant a reduction of the stock on the area
to carrying capacity. Results of the reduction began to show as early as the
following spring. In the spring of 1938 cleaning required only 110 work-days
by men with teams and 380 work-days by men working single-handed. This was a
saving of two-thirds the labor of men with teams and an increase of one-third
of the labor of men working single-handed.
With the area controlled for one year, only 13 days 1 work by men
without teams were necessary to clean the ditch, removing tumbleweed, sand and
silt. This was a saving, over 1936, of 180 teamster-days and 157 man -days.
The change in attitude of Navajo farmers is perhaps even more impor-
tant than the saving of labor. Navajos formerly felt that attempts to clean
the ditch were useless, as sand would fill it again before it could be used.
This fall the small amount of labor required was performed cheerfully, since
they were assured of water.
40
Control of blowing sand has been effected by natural revegetation
coming back caused by the reduction in grazing. At present the soil is being
held mostly by yellow-bush and Russian thistle. More beneficial species, in-
including saccaton, galleta, grama, and chamiso, are slower in their return,
but are coming back. Chamiso, in particular, has made a surprising recovery.
At the time the area was fenced, it was so denuded as to appear dead, but after
a year's control it is definitely on its way back.
PINS RIDGE (SOUTH DAKOTA) CHILDREN IN AND OUT OF THE CLASSROOM
Mr. Luke Big
Turnip, full-blood
Sioux, was invited
to tell students
something of Sioux tra-
ditions at Day School
Number Nine at Mander-
son, South Dakota.
The garden
class in action at the
Holy Rosary Mission.
(Photographs through
courtesy of the Rev-
erend Joseph A. Zim-
merman . )
41
RANGE REHABILITATION AT FORT HALL . IDAHO
A project for the reseeding of a large area of land at the Fort Hall
Reservation in Idaho, which had been plowed for dry farming in the days before
the danger of such procedure was recognized - land which turned out to be un-
suitable for dry farming - was carried on this fall with the cooperation of the
Soil Conservation Service. The lands involved are the recent addition to the
reservation at the headwaters of Bannock Creek which was purchased for Indian
use by the Resettlement Administration.
Some 2,760 acres are to be revegetated, of which 2,142 acres are to
be machine seeded and 618 acres are to be hand seeded. Heavy rains during the
last half of October and unseasonable low temperatures all through November
have made it practically impossible to operate the six seeders which are beinc
drawn by two tractors. By December 1 the sowing of the seed was nearly 10 per
cent completed. Unless more favorable weather arrives soon it will be neces-
sary to store the remaining seed and the equipment and complete the job as soon
as favorable spring weather arrives. This revegetation process would have re-
quired twelve to fifteen years if left to nature. The area will be covered
with seeds of suitable perennial grasses, and it is expected that an excellent
stand of forage will become established, provided that moisture conditions are
favorable .
BULL HOLLOW CCC-ID CAMP
The CCC-ID unit
at Muskogee, Oklahoma, has
taken over the plant of
Bull Hollow Camp, formerly
a white CCC camp •
This includes in-
firmary, sleeping quarters,
kitchen, mess hall and den-
tal unit . The operating
table and instrument cabi-
nets in the infirmary were
received from the Army as
salvage and rebuilt and re-
conditioned by enrollee me-
chanics at the camp shop.
Raising The Flag At Bull Hollow Camp
42
CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS — INDIAN DIVISION
NOTES FROM WEEKLY PROGRESS REPORTS
Work On The Swan Lake Truck
Trail At Klamath ( Oregon ) This week
marked the final stretch, or rather,
the completion of Swan Lake Truck
Trail by the machinery and other e-
quipment, with the exception, of
course, of the rock-crusher and Sixty
Caterpillar. Three men were detailed
to remain behind to operate the above
designated equipment. _C. B. Knight .
Work At Wind River ( Wyoming )
The weed control crews are doing
splendid work in trying to get rid
of all poisonous weeds before the
snowy weather sets in.
The bridge crew at Crow Creek
has done a good bit of work this week
in setting in fence posts along the
right-of-way. Besides this, they
are also waiting for the forms for
the bridge so that they can go ahead
and put in the concrete foundations.
James Fox.
Work On The Moses Mountain Look -
out Tower At Colville ( Washington )
The new lookout tower on Moses Moun-
tain began to slough off ice onto the
cabin. The cabin was built last fall
and the t ower was bui 1 1 thi s summer .
Because the tower was built so near
the cabin, the tower had a tendency to
throw' quite a lot of ice on it. When
the early frost" arrived, the ice be-
came a nuisance, and later turned
out to be a hazard. This menace was
taken care of the other day when
Walter Moomaw and a few of the boys
undertook to erect a false roof of
two-inch boards over the cabin. This
extra roof protection will absorb the
shock and lessen the chances of furth-
er damage. While the boys were fix-
ing the cabin roof, it was noticed
that the ice had very nearly punc-
tured the heavy roofing in several
places. Louis Orr .
First Adult Bducat i on Program
Presented At Rosebud ( South Dakota )
The first adult education program
was presented at five communities
with an aggregate attendance of 620
people. The meeting was in charge
of Dr. Walla Tate. The full program
is being worked out with requests
from individual communities as to
the choice of speakers, dates, and
subjects to fit in with the visual
education program. A. A. Remmele ,
Camp Assistant .
Dike Maintenance At Tulalip
( Washington ) Fair progress contin-
ues on the dike maintenance project .
Practically all of the timbers re-
quired have been cut and delivered
on the site. Three of the retain-
ing well structures are about com-
pleted. Lumber and posts are dis-
tributed along the dike where the
repairs are to be made. Practically
all the labor in connection with the
job is being done by hand. The
posts or short piling are being
hand-driven because the land is
/loam and consequently free from
gravel and rocks. This makes hand-
driving practicable. Theodore
Lpzeau , Ranger ■
Bnrollees Preparing Gifts For
Chrj stmas At Salem School ( Oregon )
Christmas time is getting nearer.
The enrollees are bending every ef-
fort to take fullest advantage of
43
their spare time after the working
day is over. For several hours each
evening the boys work on their Christ-
mas presents . They are making doll
beds out of knocked down apple boxes ,
and stick horses for the kiddies tc
ride. Some of the boys' wives are
pretty good carpenters and conse-
quently are also working at the shop
making broom holders and things to
use about the home for everyday rou-
tine.
The recreation building is of
great value to the men and they cer-
tainly are making good use of it.
James L. Shawver , Dairyman .
Work On The Lone Tree Dam Con -
tinues At Fort Belknap ( Montana )
Work on the concrete chute spillway
at the Lone Tree Dam continued, but
recent rains have caused the excavated
section to become muddy. Excavation
is now practically complete and foot-
ing forms have been installed. Foot-
ings can be poured as soon as the re-
inforcing iron is placed.
We plan to place the concrete
with a buck operated on a cable
swinging over the spillway. The cable
will be anchored stationary at one
end and swung radially at the other
end by anchoring to a truck, thus
making it possible to change the po-
sition of the bucket. The bucket is
hung on a pivot and the front end can
be lowered by means of a block and
tackle. A sliding gate on the bucket
dumps the concrete. We have a one-
batch mixer and the bucket is de-
signed to carry a full batch. Condi-
tions prevent dumping direct from the
mixer to the bucket so the concrete
will have to be wheeled a short dis-
tance from the mixer to the bucket.
This idea was developed because of
the difficulty of moving the concrete
either by wheel or by chute into the
forms. P. A. Blair, Instrumentman.
Enrollee Educational Program At
feed Lake ( Minnesota ) As part of the
educational program a safety meeting
was conducted recently. Every enroll-
ee was invited to attend, but due to
inclement weather, a few could not
attend. During this meeting a copy
of the new CCC-ID Safety Regulations
was distributed among those present-
These regulations were discussed. A
questionnaire on the uniform Highway
Traffic Act was also distributed
among the members of the CCC-ID or-'
ganization, to be answered and re-
turned to the Senior Camp Assistant,
Mr. Oksness. 0. V. Fink .
Work On Water Supply System Con -
tinues At Mission (California ) Work
continued on the water supply system.
About 500 feet of two-inch pipe was
welded, laid and completed to the
Cushman property on the south side of
Pechanga Creek. Work was continued
on the main line and on the trail on
the south side of the Pechanga Creek
west toward the Protestant Church.
About 3,300 feet have been laid and
back-filled to date.
Another portion of the crew has
been working on the erosion control
project in Pechanga Creek at a point
just below the fiesta grounds. The
long rock and wire revetment wall
will be built along the creek at this
point to deflect the water to its
original channel and to conform to
the channel change work under con-
struction by the Road Department.
This will confine the water to its
original channel and give good protec-
tion to the new trail under construc-
tion on this reservation. E. A. Vitt,
Project Manager .
Soil Conservation At Winnebago
( Nebraska ) We are making much more
progress on this project, due to the
almost perfect weather conditions-
The enrollees are in training for the
44
contest with the Winnebagos • The
competition in the contest will con-
sist of making wire dams, log dams
and timber flumes. The date for the
contest has not been set as yet. Cuy
Lambert , Indian Assistant .
Activities At Mescalero ( New
Mexico! Our enrol lee group parti ci- 1 -
pated in a tour of the lumber proj-
ects on the reservation. The men
were very glad to be afforded this
opportunity to see just how lumber
is produced. Mr. Osborn, Production
Supervisor, gave short talks at each
place we stopped, explaining the
methods of operation and the reason
for the various steps. Mr. Newman,
Superintendent , spoke for a few min-
utes after the noonday meal with re-
gard to recreation and education on
the Mescalero Reservation. We plan
to take these field trips at least
once a month in connection with this
program..
Our basket ball team has been
entered in a league composed of
teams from Otero County to promote
neighborly feeling and closer rela-
tionship between the towns in this
county. The enrollees have given
full support to this activity and
we expect to have a successful sea-
son.
Activities At Fort Peck (Mon-
tana ) A cold wave recently swept
through this part of the country.
Work is being continued on the
recreational programs- The foremen
are urging their crews to prepare
their individual programs for compe-
tition with the others.
A first-aid school will be held
at the end of the montft. Just how
many of the students will attend is
not known at this time. At the
closing of this school, our percent-
age of truck drivers, assistant lead-
ers and leaders with certificates
will be 100 per cent. A. B. Casper ,
Camp Assistant .
Dam #148 - Project #91. The di-
version dike on this dam is nearing
completion. Due to cold weather,
working time is limited. £. MacJoaald .
No Elaborate Kitchens Are Required For These Crews Which Move
Often. Each Individual May Prepare His Own Meals On Such A
Camp Fire As This. Much Of Their Food Comes From A Can.
45
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